New year, new attitude

If the men's basketball team was looking for a change from last season, it may have found one after the first three games of the year.

Last year the team jumped out to a 2-1 record following the first three games of the season. This year the Jumbos have played their first three games, and emerged with an exactly opposite 1-2 mark.

Tufts opened its season over Thanksgiving break with a home game against Springfield and two games in Colorado at the Radisson Thanksgiving Invitational. The team flew out from Boston early Thanksgiving morning to be in Colorado Springs in time for its 1 p.m. game against Wabash on Friday.

"It was tough to have to go all the way out there, but we had a nice Thanksgiving banquet with all the teams," senior co-captain Brian Shapiro said. "It wasn't quite like home, but it was nice anyway."

Making the trip even tougher for the team was that it returned home to Tufts without a single win, after losing to Wabash in two overtimes 81-87 and Colorado College 109-82. But even with the two losses, the team did not feel that the trip was entirely a loss.

"It was definitely disappointing coming home without any wins," Shapiro said. "We had a good game on Friday against a top 25 team where we went to overtime. So we were as happy about that one as you can be without actually winning the game. But I'm really proud of how everybody played."

And despite the opposite record from the start of last season, the team may actually be more optimistic following this year's first week of competition.

"Believe it or not I think the attitude is a lot better this year," Shapiro said. "I think that (Saturday's) game was just a fluke, and we played really well on Friday. The guys are really together, and it's just a different feeling on the team. Last year was a tough situation with so many kids on the team, and a lot of them weren't happy about their playing time. This year I think that all the way down the bench people are happy with their situation and just happy to be on the team."

Attitude is not the only thing that is different this year. After attacking teams with a run and gun style offense last year, the team has begun to concentrate more on its big men inside, namely sophomores Craig Coupe and Reggie Stovell and 6'7" freshman Blaine Lay.

Against Colorado College, Stovell and Coupe both contributed 14 points, and had seven and six rebounds respectively. And against Wabash, Coupe led all scorers with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Stovell had 11 points. Lay was also a big factor in the game, hitting for 13 points.

While last year the majority of Tufts' early season points came from its big three outside shooters, Shapiro, senior Mike McGlynn, and junior Phil Barlow (who has since quit the team) this season the points have been coming from the team's big three low post men, Stovell, Coupe, and Lay. Against Wabash, the three combined for more than half of the team's points. Stovell and Coupe have both been either first or second in scoring in each of the team's three games.

"We've definitely learned that we're gonna go in to them a lot now," Shapiro said. "You have to go in to them, and we're going to more and more as the season goes on."

The team faces four games over the next seven days, and while all are non-conference games, they will nonetheless be important for building the team's confidence before it begins a tough NESCAC schedule in January.

"They're important for our confidence level," Shapiro said. "I think we have the toughest schedule in New England, and all of these are top of the line teams. Every team is gonna be tough, even if they're not NESCAC teams."